(BL) Hunting The Field Guide - Chapter 95

Chapter 95: Do you want to be a Field Guide?

Chapter 95: Do you want to be a Field Guide?

After enjoying each other’s company fully, Kellen had wanted to keep the Captain around for a little bit longer when a phone call; a rather urgent one from Pamela, pulled him away.  The Captain left, but was clearly upset that he was.

He made it known he was going against his will, and he was now working overtime.

Kellen had chuckled at his display, but was secretly also upset that the Captain had to leave.

He had wanted to touch each other more.

To spend time together.

To get to know each other more.  Kellen, who didn’t know what the pain in his chest was at that thought, turned and began making dinner.  Quietly, and now alone, Kellen turned on the t.v.

for some background noise, not fully paying attention to what played in the background.

He wasn’t even fully aware of what he was making, just that it was filling and full of calories.  Sitting down at the island, he ate his food methodically, before eventually turning his attention to the couch.

The couch that neither of them had time to clean up, so now it was up to him to do it alone.

A little embarrassed, Kellen grabbed a damp cloth and some fabric safe cleaner and began to clean up the mess, same with the mess that was on the carpet.

He tried not to think back to the moments he had shared with the Captain, and failed miserably.  Alone, feeling…something, Kellen went upstairs to look at a couple of boxes in his closet, hoping that would help him sort through these feelings.  By the time morning came around, he still had no answers.  ~ Getting up early to head down to the gym first, Kellen pushed himself hard, trying to clear his mind from his workout.

He met Brent there, in his prosthetic, and the two of them didn’t speak, but worked out together.

Once done, they went their separate way in the elevator where Kellen went and had a shower, got dressed and made himself a hearty breakfast.

Before meeting Brent back downstairs in their office, both of them ready to focus on the Field Guide program.  Casper sent an email early in the morning telling them that the second round of shipments had arrived.

That, and the time for their meeting was set for 11 am, and they had booked a slightly larger conference room, conference room 4 for the meeting.  Kellen was surprised that everything had arrived so soon, and after leaving Brent alone with the printer, after Maeve said she would keep an eye on him, Kellen went to check on everything.

Casper had been right.

Everything had arrived, and he found out that the Field Guide department had a section in storage already.

He was first surprised that he had a department, and his second surprise was that his storage area was far away from the other Guides.

It was next to the research department’s storage.

The kindly older gentleman who was helping him around the storage was happy to explain everything to him, and answered all of his questions without hesitation.

Kellen promised to himself that he would make him some baked goods in the future, before he left to check on Brent.  Unlike his worries, Brent was organised, if not stuffed on the snack bowl, and all of the first drafts were printed, stapled, and ready.

Kellen let Brent know how everything looked in storage, and if this meeting went well, they might be able to have their first class in two days.

Enough time to finalize the numbers for the classes, and make sure that Casper approved of everything.

Especially with the current situation going on.  Speaking of, none of the upper management had spoken to anyone.

That was either a good sign, or a bad one.

Kellen wanted to pry, but didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes.

He felt he would ask at the end of the day when he saw the Captain again.

His cheeks flushed as he remembered.  Now that time had passed, and he’d looked over those damn boxes again, it was hitting him exactly what he had done with him.

Kellen had gotten enjoyment from getting another person off.

It was a first for him.

He knew others did it often, and quite frequently.

Hell, Brent had never been quiet about his personal life in that regard, so he knew the ins and outs of it relatively well.

It was just a first for him.  He worried about what that said about him.

Did that make him different now?

Now that he had enjoyed making the Captain squirm beneath him?

Now that he knew what the Captain looked like, behaved like in that kind of situation?

Now that he knew the power he felt from it?

The pleasure?

Was he…changing?

Was there something wrong with him?

Unsure how to even broach the topic with Brent, or if he should even talk to Brent about it, Kellen kept it to himself throughout the day.  Time rolled around, and soon Kellen found himself in a classic conference room with a nervous Brent, several little pamphlets with information on Field Guides, a projector set up, and about five minutes on the clock before people began to arrive.  Kellen took one look at how Brent was behaving, and put him in charge of handing out the pamphlets, and the slide show.

Kellen would be in charge of talking and explaining everything.

The look of relief that crossed Brent’s face when Kellen told him that made Kellen want to roll his eyes, but he didn’t.

Brent would have to get over this little bit of fear he had in regards to the teaching and speaking aspect, but it wasn’t something he wanted to rush.

He’d barely been here for a week, and this was a big program.

It was bigger than Kellen even thought it was going to be.  Hopefully, they shook off, or scared away a few potential students today.  As Guides began to pour into the room, both Kellen and Brent began to worry that they hadn’t made enough pamphlets.

Apparently, 30 hadn’t been enough.

Kellen began to worry that the room they had chosen wasn’t big enough as people kept coming in, and standing in the back.

Kellen worried that they had too many people for the room, just as Casper arrived and closed the door.  Casper, for his part, had a wide grin on his face.

He seemed tickled that there was so much interest in the program, while Brent went to Casper in a panic.

He told Casper that they had run out of pamphlets, and Casper had only laughed at him, before pointing out the students that had already signed up.

Only two or three of the original 20 weren’t able to make it due to guiding duties, but everyone else had.

Including Bree Matheson.  Kellen didn’t have time to calm Brent down, and left it up to Casper.

Kellen knew that there were bound to be a couple of questions throughout the presentation, and needed to get this slideshow on the road if he was to make sure that he used everyone’s time efficiently.

So, off he went, and the normalcy of Kellen’s behaviour did calm Brent down eventually.  Kellen, for his part, kept his explanations easy to understand, easy to hear, and very informational.

Half of what was written down was elaborated on, while the rest was written down as it.

Casper was quite impressed with his speaking capabilities, while Kellen just thought that everyone had this skill.

It was something his whole family had, and he assumed that was the same for everyone.  The presentation went smoothly, even without enough pamphlets.

It wasn’t by much, maybe four, which mean that only about 17 extra people showed up.

That wasn’t enough to scare Kellen, as when they were going through the presentation, he could see the expressions shift on a few faces.

Some of them were clearly either going to drop the program, or never get involved.

The bonus wasn’t worth it to them.  It took about an hour for the presentation, and then they had about half an hour of questions.

That surprised all three of the Guides in charge.

Things like living conditions on the front lines, food, health, relationships.

Kellen answered everything honestly, not wanting to create a false narrative for them.

Anything he answered, that Brent thought was wrong, Brent would chime in with his own experiences.

Kellen was happy that he would, and so were the Guides asking questions.

Kellen and Brent had very different lived experiences on the front lines, and both had been there for a while, too.

Finally, everyone began to leave, lots of them shaking Kellen’s hand as they passed, stars in their eyes and Kellen realised that he hadn’t convinced as many as he thought to back out.

They had just been feeling sympathy for him.

Fuck.  Casper was busy chuckling to himself, sure now that he knew Kellen, that Kellen had no idea he was such a great speaker.

That he had actually convinced others who were going to drop out of the program to keep with it.

If people turned out to be half of the Field Guide that Kellen was, they would be great Field Guides.  Brent began to clean up, while Casper and Kellen went over the numbers.

Kellen hadn’t realised that Casper had gathered everyone who wanted to go and had them sign up before they came en masse to the conference room.

That way they had a list of people to go through once the presentation was over.

Only two had come and spoken to him telling him that they wanted to not be involved with the program.

Brent, who had been listening in, went white, while Kellen sighed.

Casper was right.

They were going to have to split up the program even further.  CREATORS’ THOUGHTS CalyB Thanks for putting up with the shorter chapters!

I will probably miss tomorrow, just because that is the actual wedding day, but it will be back to regular schedule after that!

Happy reading!